We have all heard the saying, “You get what you paid for”. Problem is, here in the land of plenty (yes, even a land of plenty in a recession), it can be hard if not near impossible to know how much something should cost. And that includes craft beer.
Take a regular craft beer for instance and let’s stick to basics. Some of your costs are: ingredients, facility, wages, packaging, marketing, distribution, taxes to name some of the bigger bills.
Even the most math oriented of the beer geek community wouldn’t be able to parse the data stream and come up with a per bottle estimate without the context of how that brewery operates and their financial statements. You can try to extrapolate across the country from there but a brewery in Los Angeles will have higher land costs than Portland and eastside Portland may be less in some areas than the westside. And who wants to go to all that trouble while in your local beer emporium?
Why am I talking about the accounting side? Because it plays into the enjoyment side for many people. A six-pack that is a B+ and $8.00 is better than a B+ bomber that is $5.00. Right? Because we expect the bomber to be an A.
I would like to turn that thinking upside down. We, in the beer loving community, need to recalibrate our selection criteria. Instead of focusing on price as an indicator of enjoyment, we need to answer a simple question.
Why am I buying beer today?
Is it for the BBQ? Is it for the cellar? Is it for after work on a Friday? I believe that when we buy with a purpose and a clear head, the chance of disappointment goes down.
You might get a soured IPA or a porter that is not thick and chewy enough but even if that happens, you will have given yourself the best chance to have a satisfying beer.
